As the opioid epidemic grows and worsens, so too do the real-life consequences here in Pierce County. That surely played into Tacoma’s decision last week to add its name to a growing list of cities, counties and states that have filed lawsuits against major prescription opioid manufacturers. DreamstimeTNS

As the opioid epidemic grows and worsens, so too do the real-life consequences here in Pierce County. That surely played into Tacoma’s decision last week to add its name to a growing list of cities, counties and states that have filed lawsuits against major prescription opioid manufacturers. DreamstimeTNS

If that sounds reminiscent to the legal onslaught Big Tobacco faced prior to the landmark tobacco settlement of the late 1990s, it’s because it is, Ko says.

Both, he points out, involve lawsuits brought by state government municipalities against companies “raking in billions of dollars.”

And both, Ko believes, might help to inspire drug manufacturers to be more responsible with their products, especially with revenue increasingly at stake.

Let’s hope he’s right.

When it comes to potential outcomes, keyboard lawyers like myself are left to speculate about what will almost certainly be a lengthy legal process. Ko acknowledges that, at this point, “it’s clear ... that all of the defendants that have been sued thus far plan on defending the claims against them aggressively.”

It’s also no stretch to see that with every additional lawsuit the likelihood of drug manufacturers moving to settle the cases, consolidate them or reach some sort of global resolution only grows.

Legally, and from the cold perspective of the bottom line, such a conclusion looks smarter and smarter for drug manufactures. At some point, perhaps it becomes inevitable.

Which brings us back to Tacoma, and the city’s laudable decision to throw its weight behind the cause.

There’s no question that Tacoma has felt the impacts, both on a human level and financially, of years of over-prescription and drug makers’ false claims of safety. They’re all around us, from the number of people living on the streets and suffering from addiction, to the resources the city has been forced to expend in response.

As The News Tribune reported last week, Tacoma’s lawsuit alleges that the drug manufacturers’ tactics have “fueled the city’s homelessness crisis, strained police resources and caused the city’s health insurance costs to skyrocket.”

“I think that the real strength of the case is that there is no shortage of information available now that reveals that these defendants have been making some serious misrepresentations about opioids,” Ko says. “Since our case is really about these misrepresentations, we feel pretty confident about the claims that we’re making.”

Specifically, Tacoma’s complaint highlights the deceptive practices used by drug manufacturers to support the idea that opioid painkillers were a safe, effective way to treat pain while posing little risk for addiction.

The legal argument cites jaw-dropping numbers, like the 289 million opioid pain-medication prescriptions written in 2016, “enough for every adult in the United States to have more than one bottle of pills,” and the $78.5 billion per year that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates as the total economic burden of prescription opioid abuse in the United States.

Tacoma’s lawsuit also points to substantial evidence of a “well-orchestrated marketing campaign” over the last two decades, directed at physicians and the public, suggesting “the risk of addiction to prescription opioids was low when opioids were prescribed to treat chronic pain.”

Just as was the case in the legal fight with Big Tobacco, in other words, clear signs of an attempt to mislead the public in a quest for profit are there. Tacoma’s lawsuit helps paints a damning picture of deception, and a city struggling to deal with its effects.

And just as was the case with Big Tobacco, righting that wrong, and reaching a conclusion that helps communities with its consequences, likely depends on a ratcheting up the legal pressure.